


Domestic Life Was Never Quite Our Style

by markwardos



Category: The Social Network (2010)
Genre: Adopted Children, Cute Kids, Domestic Fluff, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, Fix-It, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-24
Updated: 2019-05-24
Packaged: 2020-03-13 21:06:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18948649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/markwardos/pseuds/markwardos
Summary: 8 years have passed since the dilution and Eduardo comes back for one of the two shareholder meetings he attends a year, he discovers that Mark's now a dad to three kids after the death of his cousin. Both Mark and Eduardo realize that a lot has changed in the last eight years and they may finally be able to mend their relationship.





	Domestic Life Was Never Quite Our Style

Eduardo hated having to come to the shareholder meetings, having to sit across from Mark. It’d been nearly eight years but he still wasn’t keen on seeing him. Alright, that was a lie, he was in fact very keen on seeing Mark which was the problem. He always wanted to see Mark but giving in to that desire would not do him any good. As such, he only actually showed up in person twice a year for the second and fourth quarter reports. The rest of the time he sent someone in his place.

 

The only person who ever complained was Dustin.

 

Dustin had left the company, but he went to every shareholder meeting. Why shouldn’t he? He lived in Palo Alto still, and he and Mark were still close.

 

Neither of those was true about Eduardo.

 

Nevertheless, Eduardo found himself walking into the Facebook offices and up to the conference room when he ran into Dustin.

 

“Waaaarddoooo,” Dustin said drawing out his name.

 

“Dustin,” Eduardo said allowing himself to smile a bit before Dustin came over and clapped him on the back.

 

“It’s good the finally see you again, it’s been six whole months, far too long,” Dustin said.

 

“It’s not too long, I mean not much has changed,” Eduardo said.

 

Dustin laughed a bit and said, “You’d be surprised, I mean…,” Dustin began before he stopped and huffed.

 

Eduardo looked over his shoulder and saw some grumpy looking lawyer waving at Dustin to come over, Dustin looked at him apologetically and said, “Sorry, I have something to sign again.”

 

“No worries, I’ll just go to the conference room, the meeting should be starting soon anyway,” Eduardo replied.

 

“Wouldn’t bet on it, Mark’s running behind so, we’re all running behind,” Dustin said before rushing off.

 

“Of course,” Eduardo grumbled making his way to the break room. He began making his coffee when he felt something brush against his leg from underneath the table and jumped away quickly.

 

Soon after he saw a little boy peak his head out from underneath the table’s tablecloth and look up at him with big brown eyes.

 

“Hi,” the little boy said.

 

Eduardo blinked and said, “Uh...hi.”

 

“Do you work for my daddy?” The boy asked.

 

“Uh, no, most likely not,” Eduardo said, he didn’t know who the kid's dad was but he was certain he didn’t work for him.

 

“Strange, everyone works for my daddy. But that’s good then you don’t have to tell him where I’m hiding,” the little boy beamed.

 

“Uh...I guess,” Eduardo said slightly dumbfounded.

 

“M’Darwin,” the little boy said offering out his small hand to Eduardo.

 

Eduardo easily took the boys hand and shook it and said, “Eduardo.”

 

“Edwardo…,” the boy said emphasizing the WAR sound in his name, as he tilted his head to the side thinking, “my brother's middle name is Edward, so is my grandpas.”

 

Eduardo nodded and said, “Yeah, that’s close.”

 

The boy had quickly moved on and said, “I know all the good places to hide here.”

 

“You do,” Eduardo said smiling this time.

 

The boy nodded and grabbed Eduardo’s hand and said, “Mhmm...I’ll show you.”  
  
Eduardo cleared his throat not knowing what to say but allowed himself to be dragged forward by the little boy.

 

He was sweet looking, and only about four or five by Eduardo’s estimation. He had dark blonde hair that curled up at the ends and was wavy throughout and gave him a charming boyish look, and Eduardo found him to be absolutely adorable with the way he marched ahead dragging Eduardo behind him.

 

As they walked on he suddenly heard a small girlish voice shout, “There he is, daddy!”

 

Eduardo turned his head a bit to look where it’d come from and caught Mark’s eyes almost instantly.

 

Darwin froze next to Eduardo holding tightly to his hand still as Mark stared back at him for a moment before moving forward slowly, and when Eduardo finally tore his eyes from Mark’s face, his face dropped to see that in his arms he was holding a baby who looked less than a year old, with wide blue eyes that are eerily familiar and dark blond hair similar to the boy currently holding his hand. When his eyes drop further he finds the source of the girlish voice, holding Mark’s hand and dragging him towards Eduardo and Darwin. She like the youngest boy has the same familiar blue eyes, only this time it's paired with long brown hair that goes to her shoulders.

 

She marches forward dragging Mark behind her till they’re all in front of him and Darwin.

 

“You’re in trouble,” the little girl says to Darwin who frowns at her before the little girl looks up at Mark and says, “Right daddy?”

 

Eduardo stares back at Mark dumbfounded and blinking before Mark clears his throat and said, “What’re you doing with him?” And it’s clearly directed at him and not Darwin.

 

“He said he was going to show me his favorite hiding spots,” Eduardo replies.

 

Mark narrows his eyes and says, “And what you just followed along...what am I saying, of course, you did, he’s a kid and you’re Eduardo.”

 

“It’s Edwardddooo, daddy,” Darwin says still holding Eduardo’s hand, “like Alex’s middle name,” he adds reaching out and running his small hand against the baby in Mark’s arms’ knee.

 

“Right,” Mark huffs and says, “come on Darwin, you’ve made us late. You're supposed to stay with Deborah, while daddy has his meeting.”

 

Darwin huffs similar to Mark and lets go of Eduardo’s hand and instead grabs ahold of the hoodie Mark is unsurprisingly wearing before looking up at Eduardo, “It was nice to meet you, Edwardo,” Darwin says with manners Eduardo can’t see Mark having taught him.

 

“It was nice to meet you too, Darwin,” Eduardo nods at him.

 

Mark frowns before turning and saying, “Come on kiddos, let's go,” and walking down the hall glancing back at Eduardo once.

 

Eduardo shakes his head completely stunned by what he’s just seen and begins wandering towards the conference room where he finds Dustin.

 

“There you are,” Dustin says, “I was wondering where you got to.”

Eduardo blinks at him and says, “Am I dreaming Dustin? Or does Mark really somehow have three kids now?”

 

Dustin pales and pauses, “How did you? What?”

 

“I just met Darwin, and then had quite the run-in with Mark and his other two children.”

 

“Oh, uh...yeah, I was going to tell you obviously,” Dustin begins.

 

“That what? Mark had been hiding children for the past fivish years?” Eduardo asks.

 

“Of course not, Wardo, don’t be crazy,” Dustin says.

 

“Darwin is at least four or five,” Eduardo exclaims.

 

“He’s almost five yes, but Mark hasn’t been hiding his children for the past five years,” Dustin begins.

 

“I swear Dustin if you try and claim that I’ve been absent so much that I just haven’t noticed till now, I swear to God.”

 

“Would you calm down?” Dustin replies, “he’s only had them for the last five months, they were his cousin, Alexandra’s kids. She died in a car accident five months ago, her and Mark were close, she left the kids to him. She was always kind of troubled you know, you met her once. Each kids dad either overdosed or ran off before or shortly after the kids were born.”

 

“So what Mark just adopted them? Mark doesn’t even like kids.”

 

“Mark’s not that bad. He’s changed a lot, grown-up you know? And he’s actually doing a great job, those kids love him. Their life is probably more stable now than it ever has been. He’s not perfect but he’s doing the best he can, not many people wake up one morning, single and alone and wake up the next with three children under five years of age.”

 

“So they’re just calling him daddy now?” Eduardo asks.

 

“You really should talk to Mark if you want to get all in depth about this,” Dustin says before receiving an incredulous look from Eduardo and rolling his eyes, “Yes, they call him daddy. They never really had a dad, plus it’s been easier that way I think. Darwin asked if he could, and Madeline did too, and it makes sense considering Alex has never known any parent but Mark and will inevitably call him such, so yes, he’s a daddy now,” Dustin tells Eduardo.

 

Eduardo shakes his head and says, “This is crazy.”

 

“Yeah, imagine hearing it over a phone call,” Dustin laughs good-heartedly.

 

Eduardo taps his fingers on the table for a moment before Mark comes in and everyone turns towards him.

 

“Sorry I’m late,” Mark says clearing his throat, “small situation, but we can get started now.”

 

“Always late lately,” Eduardo hears one shareholder mumble next to him as the meeting launches in.

 

After the meetings over Eduardo finds himself watching Mark, noting that he’s grabbed three cookies before exiting the conference room.

 

And because he’s Eduardo and he can’t help himself he also finds himself following Mark out of the conference room. He follows him all the way to a small office where an older woman in her sixties is bouncing the youngest of Mark’s newly founded bunch on her lap, while Darwin and the little girl that Eduardo recalled Dustin calling, Madeline, sat at the woman's desk drawing.

 

As soon as Mark walks in the little one's heads shoot up and break out in smiles with the little girl standing up on her chair and reaching her hands out for him before jumping off the chair into Mark’s quickly opened arms.

 

She smiles at him as Darwin gets up from his seat and hugs Mark around his legs causing Mark to shift Madeline to his other hip, holding her with one arm, so he can use the other to reach down and comb his fingers through Darwin’s blondish locks.

 

He watches as Mark takes his hand from Darwin’s hair and reaches into his pocket handing a cookie to Darwin and Madeline who beam even wider before munching at their cookies, as Mark sits down and begins to eat his own.

 

It’s then that the little one, Alexander, starts to cry and reach for Mark who sighs but not in an annoyed sort of way that Eduardo has heard so many times before, but in a sort of mock laugh, as he sets his cookie down and reaches out so the woman can pass the little boy to Mark.

 

Instantly the boy stops crying and buries his face into Mark’s shoulder, mouthing at his hoodie as Mark smooths his hand across his back, his other arm still holding Madeline who’s sat on his lap.

 

It doesn’t make the slightest bit of sense to Eduardo that the Mark in front of him can be the one he knew all those years back. It’s kind of like that old, old movie, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and Mark’s body has obviously been snatched.

 

As he thinks this Dustin comes up and says, “I told you he’s changed.”

“That can’t be Mark,” Eduardo replies.

 

Dustin shakes his head and says, “It is though. He’s good I mean. He’s been getting progressively better with age, but he got those kids six months ago and he really grew up big time. He loves them, they love him back, he’s their dad and nothing short of it, he doesn’t stay here till midnight anymore, in fact, he’s home by five every night, and he’s in at seven in the morning. He leaves at three to pick up Darwin from kindergarten and Maddie from preschool, and he comes back here for an hour or so and then goes home. He goes home and doesn’t spend the whole night coding, he makes sure they have dinner, plays with them, reads them a bedtime story, tucks them in, he’s good Wardo.”

 

Eduardo stares in on them before trying to quickly rush away when he sees them get up, but he’s already been caught by Mark who catches his eye and frowns as he boosts Alexander up on his hip and takes ahold of Madeline’s hand as Darwin skips out in front of them.

 

Darwin catches sight of him and waves, “Hi, Edwardoooo.”

 

Eduardo glances up at Mark who quickly looks elsewhere before he nods and says, “Hello, Darwin.”

 

The boy smiles and Mark nudges Darwin with his hip, “Come on Darwin, time to go.”  


Darwin looks up at Mark inquisitively before nodding his head, “Alright, bye bye Edwardo.”

 

“Bye Darwin.”

 

Darwin waves at him as he grips Mark’s hoodie and follows him out and Eduardo is left dumbfounded.

 

Eduardo spends the next day thinking of nothing but the fact that Mark’s a father, and seemingly a good one. So different than the person who wrote him out of the company all those years ago.

 

Sometime around noon he gets a frantic call from Dustin.

 

“Hey, Wardo, uh...I need to ask a favor,” Dustin says sounding panicked.

 

“Uh...sure...Dustin,” Eduardo says.

 

“I promised to do something and I would but now I have my own crisis and I wouldn’t call if everyone I trust wasn’t preoccupied with the two different crisis’s or out of the area.”

 

“Alright Dustin,” Eduardo says trying to calm Dustin down.

 

“I’ll be at your hotel room in like five minutes, I just need you to watch something for me,” Dustin says.

 

“Okay, but what,” Eduardo begins.

 

“I’ll be there soon Wardo, bye,” Dustin says quickly hanging up.

 

Eduardo shakes his head and sighs as he waits for Dustin.

 

Like clockwork, there’s a knock on his door five minutes later and as soon as he opens it he’s greeted by the sight of Dustin and three children, Mark’s children.

 

Eduardo’s mouth drops and Dustin barges in with Darwin and Maddie following behind him.

 

“I know, I know, but I have no one else to call,” Dustin says.

 

“Dustin, if Mark,” Eduardo begins.

 

“He’ll get over it, what matters most is that the kids are taken care of. The office is a mess right now everyone is working on the latest update, it’s got the whole swill of issues. He doesn’t trust sitters he always relies on friends in this situation but we’re all occupied, and I’ve got my own crisis at my office, so I need you to do this.”

 

Eduardo stares at Dustin before Darwin tugs at his sleeve.

 

“Edwardo, can we play go fish,” Darwin asks.

 

Eduardo stutters and says, “I...I don’t have ca….”

 

“Yeah, you do, all in the bag of goodies,” Dustin says shaking a small duffle bag that's hanging off one of his shoulders, while a diaper bag is hanging off his other.

 

Eduardo shoots a small glare at Dustin who gives a dopey smile and says, “Come on Wardo.”

 

Eduardo shakes his head and says, “Fine, Dustin fine, but you’re explaining to Mark.”  


“A fitting punishment, now here you go, this is Alexander,” Dustin says as he passes the baby off to him, before patting the top of the little girls head, “this is Maddie, and you’ve met Darwin, so you’re good,” Dustin says setting down the bags.

 

“When will you be picking them up?” Eduardo asks.

 

“Whenever Mark’s done, he’ll be over,” Dustin says.

“Mark...Dustin no, no,” he says.

 

“It’ll be fine Wardo,” Dustin replies before kissing the kids heads, “I’ll see you kiddos around, have fun with Wardo,” he says before giving Eduardo a thumbs up and quickly retreating.

 

As soon as Dustin leaves Eduardo feels three pairs of eyes on him, he looks at the baby in his arms first feeling his gaze is the least searching and chews on the inside of his cheek when he sees up close just how similar his eyes are to Mark’s. Mark’s related to them, albeit not their father, but he assumes Mark’s eyes can run from other parts of his family, but it still stuns Eduardo a little.

 

Eduardo finally looks down at the older pair and Darwin again says, “Cards?”

 

Eduardo nods and quickly fetches the cards from the bag Dustin had referenced, so that’s how he finds himself sitting on the bed with Alex in his lap chewing on the corner of one of the cards in his hand, and playing Go Fish with Darwin and Maddie.

 

He makes them giggle at him and within the hour he has them entirely won over, he even manages to change Alex’s diaper without too much of a hassle.

 

Once they finish playing Eduardo orders room service for him, Maddie, and Darwin emphasizing the needs for Darwin’s burger to have ketchup and pickles but no cheese, and for Maddie’s chicken fingers to come with barbecue sauce, all in the effort to avoid having to deal with a meltdown.

 

While they eat he slowly picks at his meal while feeding Alex his formula and burping him after against his shoulder.

 

When they finish it’s already nearing six o’clock and still, there’s no word of when Mark might show up.

 

So Eduardo rents a Disney movie on the tv and settles in with the kiddos.

 

He rests Alex against his chest running his hand soothingly over his back, Darwin and Maddie both cuddle into his sides resting their heads on the juncture of his shoulder and chest their little arms draped across his waist as they watch the movie.

 

Somewhere during the movie, all the little ones doze off against him, and Eduardo can’t exactly move as he’s buried under three kids he has no desire to disturb. He tries to stay awake as he eyes the clock reading 9 pm, figuring he should be awake when Mark comes to collect them. But it’s surprisingly easy how easy it is to fall asleep with the little kids cuddled again him and he finds himself asleep rather quickly.

 

He wakes with a start to pounding on his door, his eyes flying to the clock that reads 1 am. He goes to get up but finds himself buried by the kids still.

 

“One moment,” he hisses out as the pounding continues.

 

He shifts carefully and lifts Alex up with him, Darwin and Maddie only give out a small whine before dropping back into sleep. Alex stirs against his shoulder, one of his small hands holding Eduardo’s hair in his fist.

 

Eduardo carefully moves to the door keeping one hand on Alex supporting him and soothing over his back to keep him asleep as he opens the door to the hallway.

 

In the bright hallway lights, Mark is standing there in his typical hoodie attire. He has dark circles under his eyes and his hair is messy, and overall he just looks exhausted.

 

“Hey,” Eduardo says.

 

“Hey,” Mark says walking past him into the dark hotel room looking down at his sleeping children on the bed before turning towards him.

 

“You can’t help yourself can you?” Mark says.

 

“What?” Eduardo says.

 

“Couldn’t help but jump at the chance to babysit my kids, have kids in your presence, tell them how terrible I am?” Mark shoots at him.

 

Eduardo’s mouth drops and he wants to scream but the kids are here, so he raises his hand to Alex’s head to shield him from his harsh whisper.

 

“What am I five? I’m not that petty, I would never let what happened then between us affect your kids, I’d certainly never turn them against you or say anything terrible about their dad,” Eduardo says, “and I didn’t jump at the chance, Dustin all but forced them on me, and I helped out as a favor to him.”

 

Mark frowns and crosses his arms, “So what did you do with them?”

 

“We played Go Fish, Maddie won, I ordered them room service, Darwin had a burger with pickles, ketchup, no cheese, Maddie had chicken fingers and fries with barbecue sauce, I fed Alex his formula. Then we watched Tarzan, they fell asleep in the middle and I fell asleep too.”

 

Mark was still frowning but seemed to relax a bit once Eduardo walked him through the night. Mark stared down at Darwin and Madeline running his fingers through Darwin’s wavy blond hair.

“I’m not a bad dad, Eduardo. I wasn’t putting the company first, I normally don’t have to pass them off, I don’t come home this late, I wasn’t putting Facebook first, I was just…” Mark begins to say.

 

“Mark, I never said you were a bad dad. These sort of days happen to every parent. It’s okay, I’m not standing here accusing you. We’re not who we used to be.”

 

Mark stood silent for a moment and said, “If we’re not then why do you hide out in Singapore, why aren’t you here for the shareholder meetings more than twice a year. Huh?” Mark says blue eyes turning on him.

 

“It’s not about us, or about that its... I have a life over there, I don’t have the time,” Eduardo says.

 

“Right, because Facebook was never going to be that important to you, it was about the money, always. You didn’t love it like I did, it wasn’t what you wanted, you were always going to leave.”

 

Eduardo stared and found himself reaching out to grab Mark’s wrist, still holding Alexander against his chest.

 

“Mark,” he said forcing Mark to look his way, “no one loves Facebook the way you do. Why did it matter if I was going to leave, or didn’t love it as much as you did? Dustin and Chris both left.”

 

Mark frowned and said “You were different, you were, I needed you to love Facebook as much as I did or more than anything else that could come into your line of sight. You were just...I needed you to stay, I needed you to stay at Facebook, I need you to stay with me….I…I needed you.”

 

Eduardo chewed on his bottom lip and said, “You could have said that. If you had said that I wouldn’t have left Facebook. If you said you needed me, I would have stayed, maybe I didn’t love Facebook the way you did, but I would have stayed for you.”

 

Mark looked up at Eduardo and said, “But you didn't. I asked you to come out and you didn’t. You didn’t come. I told you then that I needed you and you...you were never going to come out. You had to finish Harvard, you didn’t need Harvard unless you were planning to leave eventually.”

 

Eduardo sighed and said, “I wanted to finish Harvard for me. I wanted to finish what I started, I just...I needed to finish. But I was going to come out eventually I was.”

 

Mark stared back at him for a moment before turning away, “Well...its...it's all over. I should...I should take them and uh...go.”

 

Eduardo reached out again and grabbed Mark’s arm and said, “Stay.”

 

Mark stared at him blinking and Eduardo said, “It’s two am, you’ve been working all day, you’re tired, you shouldn’t drive. Especially with them, so stay.”

 

Mark continued to stare back at Eduardo before looking down at Alex fast asleep in Eduardo’s arms, eyes zeroing in on Alex’s hand locked in Eduardo’s hair. He sighed and nodded slowly, “Okay.”

 

“Okay,” Eduardo repeated watching as Mark slid out of his sneakers before sitting down on the bed.

 

Eduardo nodded before crawling in on the other side, and falling back into his position, relaxing back and letting Alex rest on his chest again, hand smoothing over the little ones back.

 

He looked over and saw Mark staring at him for a moment as he curled around Maddie and pulled her close to him, while Darwin rolled over to bury his face into Eduardo’s shoulder, arms wrapping around Eduardo’s waist.

 

“They like you,” Mark whispers.

 

“They’re kids they don’t dislike people without cause,” Eduardo replies.

 

Mark shrugs and says, “You’d be surprised. Darwin’s normally especially hard to please. He took to you right off though. Madeline’s easier, she’s the boss of the house.”

 

“I noticed,” Eduardo chuckles.

 

Mark smiles and nods, “And Alex, he smiles so much, but he’s normally iffy around strangers, but he’s so comfortable with you.”

 

Eduardo shrugs and runs his hand over Alex’s back before Mark sighs and says, “But you’re Eduardo, kids and getting people to like you always comes easy.”

 

“I’m just nice,” Eduardo says.

 

“Right, and I’m an asshole.”

 

“Mark.”

 

“No, I am.”

 

“You’re not, not anymore really, maybe a little, but you’re good with them, really you are, I’m proud of you. Doing what you did, taking them in, that was good.”

 

“Mmm...yes that’s why I do what I do, for you to be proud of me,” Mark mocks.

 

“I’m just saying what you did was a good thing, Mark.”

 

“She was a good cousin. She was always in trouble, but she was a good cousin and person and we grew up together. And I was around whenever I could be for Darwin and Maddie, and I loved them. Then she was pregnant again, abandoned again, but she’d made it work all the other times so I didn’t think anything of it. It’d be the same. But then I got a call, she was in a car accident. She barely survived long enough for them to get Alex out of there, and then I was told that I was the chosen guardian. And I couldn’t not take them…,” Mark says.

 

“I’m sorry Mark.”

 

Mark smiles sadly and says, “Her name was Alexandra, so I named him Alexander, and then Edward after my father, plus all their middle names start with E so I figured I should stay on theme.”

 

Eduardo sighs and says, “As I said, Mark, you did well.”

 

Mark smiles a bit and then kisses Maddie’s head, “Thanks.”

 

There’s a silence that lingers for a while before Mark whispers, “You don’t have to stay away anymore. You can come to every meeting or at least more than twice a year.”

 

Eduardo’s mind races in a sort of incoherent noise.

 

“Okay,” Eduardo replies.

 

“Okay,” Mark whispers back.

 

Eduardo settles in and keeps his arms around both Alex and Darwin. He feels comfortable with the two of them, and Maddie too, it feels natural, all of this feels too natural, even Mark.

 

And Eduardo can’t help but think what things would be like had he stayed, had Mark not written him out, had they been together the way Eduardo had always wanted.

 

These kids would be theirs not just Mark’s. But he quickly wiped that from his mind. Not allowing himself to think about it.

 

A little visual of the bunch:

(I'm a royal family stan I couldn't help but imagine them as Mark's kids) 


End file.
